The possible future proliferation of cellular technologies in unlicensed spectrum (such as New Radio-Unlicensed (NR-U), Licensed Assist Access (LAA), Long Term Evolution-Unlicensed (LTE-U), MulteFire and future systems not yet defined), which are collectively known as unlicensed LTE)) via deployments by carriers and enterprises across the United States and the rest of the world has the potential to disrupt Wi-Fi® wireless local area network (WLAN) systems using the same unlicensed frequency band channels. The disruption by unlicensed LTE could come from the use of high transmit power, high offered load and aggressive Listen-Before-Talk (LBT) operation, particularly in locations in which there are already operational Wi-Fi systems.
Radio resource mitigation techniques, which often move Wi-Fi systems by default into channels not containing unlicensed LTE systems, may be applied to maintain better Wi-Fi client connectivity and performance. However, automatically migrating Wi-Fi systems out of channels containing unlicensed LTE waveforms will allow unlicensed LTE to push Wi-Fi into a smaller and smaller number of channels. The end result will be that Wi-Fi systems will perform increasingly poorly and unlicensed LTE systems will have an opportunity to provide better service. Wi-Fi systems need to employ mechanisms that allow them to compete effectively for use of all unlicensed spectrum and thus maintain access parity with unlicensed LTE.